Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- Theresa Heinz Kerry wird von mir zur Aufsichts-Rätin bei Carlyle vorgeschlagen!* - Emerald, 15.08.2004, 13:47
- Carlyle Group & G. W. Bush: Im MM-Buch"Volle Deckung, Mr. Bush", bzw. - Prosciutto, 15.08.2004, 16:44
Theresa Heinz Kerry wird von mir zur Aufsichts-Rätin bei Carlyle vorgeschlagen!*
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Reuters
Carlyle Looks Toward Commercial Aerospace
Saturday August 14, 2:19 pm ET
By Julie MacIntosh
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private investment firm Carlyle Group, which has a reputation for making well-timed and occasionally controversial plays in the defense industry, has quietly placed its bets on another part of the market.
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The aerospace and defense group at Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle, one of the world's largest and most diversified buyout firms, might as well have dropped the word"aerospace" from its name in the early 1990s.
But that sector has superseded defense for the last five years to account for the lion's share of the group's buyouts. And the rest of the industry has taken notice.
"Very quietly, these guys have built up a huge portfolio in commercial aerospace," an industry source said."It looks like they're trying to do in commercial what they did in defense."
Peter Clare, a veteran of the group who was promoted last week to its helm, attributed some of the strategy shift to the high valuations of defense companies, which have seen an influx of government spending since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
As competition for takeover candidates intensified in that space, Carlyle turned its focus to the commercial side, where a major downturn in production started even before Sept. 11.
"(Aerospace) valuations are lower, earnings levels are lower, and there's a desire for some holders of the businesses to turn around and sell them," said Clare, who pointed to the sector's volatility as a money-making opportunity.
"To win any of these businesses, you've got to pay a full, fair price," he said."But we're buying at what we think is a low point in their earnings due to the cycle."
BUSINESS JET BOOM AHEAD?
Carlyle, which has more than $18 billion under management, built up its initial exposure to the commercial aerospace sector through several defense-oriented investments in the first half of the 1990s.
Its commercial aerospace-related buyouts have increased in frequency since then. Of particular note is a recent string of investments in companies that maintain, repair and overhaul jet engines.
The firm last year bought the aerospace business of Fiat's (Milan:FIA.MI - News) Avio unit, which designs and builds aeronautical engine parts and repairs aircraft engines.
In early July, Carlyle agreed to pay $760 million for Dunlop Standard's Standard Aero division, which does maintenance on aircraft engines, mainly for regional and business jets and the military.
And just two weeks later, Carlyle said it would buy another aircraft maintenance company -- General Electric Co.'s (NYSE:GE - News) Garrett Aviation Services. It plans to combine Garrett with its Piedmont Hawthorne operation, which provides refueling, maintenance and charter services to corporate and private jet operators.
"We think there's going to be growth in the use of business jets, which is really the driving force behind the Garrett/Piedmont deal," Clare said. The commercial aerospace original equipment market is at or very close to the bottom of a cycle, he said, and Carlyle wants to invest more in businesses that maintain, repair and overhaul military, corporate and regional jets.
On the defense side, the firm has run into some criticism over ties to interests in the Middle East as well as its prolific hiring of big-name former government officials, many with backgrounds at the Pentagon.
STAYING ON THE COUCH
Not surprisingly, a fourth component of the jet servicing business -- commercial airplanes -- has drawn minimal attention from private investors like Carlyle.
U.S. airlines, which have staggered through numerous bankruptcies and hostile labor talks since 2001, already have excess airplane maintenance, repair and overhaul capacity. Mechanics' unions are duking it out with -- and sometimes suing -- their employers for the right to do work that independent contractors can also provide.
Clare said Carlyle would stick with its strengths in other areas, which don't include outright airline ownership.
The firm has never owned an airline, he said, although it has looked at a few.
"To go from having not done (an airline investment) to attempting an investment and restructuring at a major airline is just too far away from our core competence," Clare said."It would be like going from sitting on your couch and watching TV for weeks to trying to do a triathalon."
*) zur gelegentlichen Ueberprüfung der ambitiösen Verstrickungen der Bush-
Clique. Halliburton, Ketch-up and Carlyle are the remaining US-Companies
after the general Chapter-11 in beautiful America?
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